PR scams abound—here’s how to spot them
“This is a PR scam, right?” wrote one of our partners when forwarding this email (reproduced here verbatim, including the punctuation errors):
Hi [name],
Came across your business and thought you’d want to be recognized in this next article, “Top Companies to Watch”
Our agency can get your stories featured in Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Business Insider, MarketWatch, The Associated Press, Podcasts, TV interviews, and more..
For our October campaign, the next 6 companies we onboard will get confirmed placements for their features.
Would you like to chat more about this?
PS: The deadline is in 2 days.
PPS — We charge a facilitation fee for this placement opportunity
Best, [first name, last initial]
Right. This is a PR scam. Businesses of all kinds get these spammy come-ons, which play on the hypercompetitive media market, our natural desire for recognition, and a general lack of experience with how journalism and PR work. They’re mostly an annoyance, but they can waste real time and, for those who bite, money.
These emails seem to promise premium placements in top-tier media. What they most likely deliver is press releases that get posted in the nether regions of news sites, where few (if any) readers will ever see them; articles that appear on content farms or videos that run in infomercial slots on broadcast outlets; and sponsored content you could buy on your own without the markup. It’s also possible some of these scams yield nothing but a lighter bank balance—we haven’t tapped our own accounts to find out.
You can easily spot these phony “opportunities,” though, if you know what to look for. Ask yourself these questions next time a random PR offer lands in your inbox:
Is the service and outcome clearly stated?
PR scam emails always present their offer with a certain slipperiness. Consider the email above: “Our agency can get your stories featured in Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Business Insider, MarketWatch, The Associated Press” and gosh, just about everywhere. That certainly sounds like they are promising you a journalist-written story in one of these outlets, positioned or promoted in a spot where people might see it.
But PR firms typically do not promise earned media coverage, particularly at high volumes in high-profile, traditional media outlets. We can’t do that because we don’t control what reporters and their editors decide to publish or broadcast. We do our damnedest to convince them it should be stories about our clients, but there’s no guarantee.
What’s really being promised here is a paid content option, or possibly a placement on a content farm. Emails like these are deceptive because they require you to parse all the wiggle words (can get your stories featured, not will; confirmed placements, but not necessarily in the specified outlets). The agency that sent that email has a wall of logos on its website trumpeting the outlets they work with. It includes a few legitimate names sprinkled among many more outlets that sound like real news outlets (Wall Street Times, San Francisco Post) but are just content dumps. However much getting into those costs, it’s not worth it.
Is the pitch plausible?
Another common ploy is using flattery in a bid to overcome your natural sense of discernment. When I get an email like this (yes, they send them to PR agencies too), I have to wonder, what are the chances someone I’ve never met is going to pluck me or my company out the vast internet sea and get me a plum feature in a top-tier outlet?
Journalists don’t scan the web searching for businesses whose sites emanate “top company to watch” or CEOs who give off “influential,” “visionary,” or otherwise stellar vibes. And outlets don’t publish such lists compiled by PR firms. So where do they come from? You or your PR team apply for them through a competitive nomination and selection process run by the sponsoring publication. Or the editorial team selects you through an internal process, perhaps based on people and companies they’ve covered and found impressive, staff-generated suggestions, or outreach to luminaries in relevant fields. One thing is certain: While applications for “best of” lists and awards often have fees attached, credible programs do not auction off their honoree decisions through email solicitations.
And then there’s next-level implausibility, illustrated by this follow-up to the email above:
Hey [name],
There are a few reporters looking forward to writing an article about someone with unique insights or expertise. We’re reaching out to see if you’d be open to being featured.
The deadline is now in two days.
Opposed to chatting further?
PS — We charge a facilitation fee for this placement opportunity
Best, …
Um, yes, reporters generally are looking for “unique insights or expertise.” But which reporters is she talking about? What is the article about? Where would it be featured? How does she know you have what they’re looking for? You do have insight and expertise, and it will tell you that this is 100% not on the level. And that two-day deadline? Without any reporter or project attached to it, you can be sure this is just a pressure tactic to get you to act without thinking.
Is the source of the email credible?
If the offer names a clear, plausible opportunity but still doesn’t feel right, look at the source. One suspicious agency I checked out has a website that does not list a single client or person who works there. PR is a relationship-based business—no real agency would hide their team. And if they claim an association with a media outlet, verify that.
Maybe this is starting to sound like a lot of work. If you’re afraid of missing out, answer the email with a series of specific questions: How much will this cost? Exactly where will it run? Do you work for (the outlet they cite, if they seem to be implying a direct connection)? What makes us right for this piece? Are you paying for this coverage and charging a markup? This will save you from unnecessary sales calls and give you practice in sorting out the spin.
One client opted to check out a potentially legit offer to be on Bloomberg TV (a viable target for the client) on a relevant topic. The upshot: the proposal was a $25,000 “DOCU-DRAMA” (the client got a good laugh over that—what could that this mean in the context of business coverage?), to run in various unseen slots across streaming networks.
That’s usually the way it goes. However, don’t be too quick to delete a media-themed email just based on a spammy-sounding subject line. One time—only one, in 15 or so years—we got an email that looked like a duck but was actually a peacock: a message from an NBC producer we had never met or pitched under the all-caps subject TIMELY- NBC NEWS STORY REQUEST. When we opened it, it was clearly for real—the topic was core to our client’s work and the producer described how she found out about our client, provided details about the anticipated story, and requested interviewees who could speak to her angle.
If you get an email with details like that, congratulations! You have a bona fide opportunity. If you get one that doesn’t, and you can’t answer a clear “yes” to the questions above, you are looking at a PR scam.
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